Continuing their Magnificat series, and the last album of Andrew Nethsingha’s tenure as director, The Choir of St John’s College Cambridge present Magnificat 4 with works from composers including Judith Weir, Jonathan Dove, Joanna Forbes L’Estrange and Charles Villiers Stanford.
The album features two items commissioned specially for St John’s by Judith Weir alongside the world premiere of a new piece by Jonathan Dove.
★★★★★ Performance ★★★★★ Recording “Imaginative programming of innovative contemporary works rubbing shoulders with canonical repertoire…the distinctive St John’s ‘sound’, with its immaculate balance, luminous tone and elegant yet unaffected phrasing…Andrew Nethsingha has departed from St John’s with a sense of promise fulfilled and bright hope for the future” – BBC Music Magazine
★★★★★ “The stand-out for me is the concluding Worcester Service by Piers Connor Kennedy, with its echoes of plainchant. As organist George Herbert writes in his excellent booklet notes, it ‘inspires a real feeling of worship and understatement’.” – Choir and Organ
“Every detail has been polished and beautifully presented…Piers Connor Kennedy’s a cappella Worcester Service (2015) is distinguished for being the only Latin setting on the disc and for the sheer beauty of its understatement. The album features the premiere of Jonathan Dove’s St John’s Service. His hallmark energy sparkles throughout the Magnificat and contrasts beautifully with the gentlest of Nunc dimittis treatments. George Herbert’s organ-playing is also a joy to behold.Alas, Judith Weir’s 2011 service seems rather dull in comparison. Finest of all, though, is Joanna Forbes L’Estrange’s King’s College Service, full of delicious earworms and melting harmonies, and I am confident that this work will remain as popular as Stanford’s classic in 100 years’ time.” – Gramophone
“These are beautiful canticles. This whole series of St John’s recordings has been a joy to follow.” – MusicWebInternational
★★★★1/2 star Performance, ★★★★★ Recording “Technically everything runs like clockwork, musically it is the inner calm, the clean structure and the cantabile nature of his playing that are particularly convincing. In this way he does full justice to the seriousness of Tartini’s music.” – FONO FORUM